Traditional auctions have long been known in the art. Such auctions take place by offering an item for sale whereupon those in the crowd take turns making a bid. As each bid is made, the next bidder must offer at least an incrementally higher bid in order for his new bid to be accepted. Once a bid is accepted, it is usually considered binding on the bidder and auction provider.
While this traditional method has uses and may even be enjoyable, it also has limitations. For instance, a bidder must pre-register with the auction provider and place some sort of collateral or down payment with the provider to ensure that the bids will be honored. Disclosures of personal information that might dissuade bidders from placing a bid must also be provided at least to the auction provider, if not to the other participants and the public at large. A bidder must also become an active participant or “seek out” the auction; e.g. the bidder must pre-register, be at a specific location at a specific time to witness the auction process, and so forth. A casual observer cannot simply be walking by an auction and make a bid (unless the auction provider is willing to accept a substantial amount of unfulfilled bids by anonymous parties). Further, the auction provider only receives payment for the highest bid in such a traditional auction.
Online auctions, such as are well known in the art (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,162,446 and hereby incorporated by reference, and the ebay.com, bidz.com, and swoopo.com references which are provided in the Information Disclosure Statement for the U.S. version of this application) are auctions which take place at all hours and allow a bidder to “enter” and “leave” an auction at the bidder's own convenience. Still, however, these online auctions have failed to solve the problem of pre-registration and anonymity. In fact, in the online world, pre-registration is even more essential, because making a fake bid is even easier in such a setting. In the case of online auctions, bidders can only bid on the product if they register an online account (which is often time-consuming and requires disclosure of one's email account address) and disclose billing information (e.g., mailing address, credit card information, etc.) to the online auction provider. Still further, such online auctions are largely limited to the website of the auction provider and are not easily transferable to a physical auction setting, as the users must be well-versed in computer-based methods of registration, payment, and so forth, as well as use the proprietary features of each bidding website.
Furthermore, traditional and online auctions are both inconsistent with an economy that is often regarded as based on instant consumer gratification. When consumers see an item that they desire, they want to purchase the item at that moment. An auction setting simply does not allow for this, and thus a great deal of auction commerce is lost.
There is a need in the art to provide auctions which are convenient, safe, allow for instant gratification of the bidder (an “impulse buy”), and do not require pre-registration. Such an auction would allow for the benefits of auctions while decreasing the negative aspects thereof.